


Watch The Skies

by respoftw



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Apocalypse, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-25
Updated: 2018-01-25
Packaged: 2019-03-09 09:26:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13478523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/respoftw/pseuds/respoftw
Summary: John and Rodney watch the sky and wait for it to fall.





	Watch The Skies

**Author's Note:**

> Um...happy more joy day? 
> 
> I'm so sorry, I didn't know about More Joy Day and I already had this set to post so...ducks head.

“It feels wrong,” Rodney said quietly. “Not to be fighting. To just…sit here and - “ he broke off, gesturing at the sky above them.

It was a beautiful sky. John had flown across a lot of them in his time and he'd never seen anything quite like this one. It was close to what should have been midday on the planet but the sky was darkened to a rosy dusk. Purples and reds streaked across the encroaching black and the flare of orange in the far distance made John wish that he had any sort of artistic ability at all.

Something this beautiful should be captured for posterity, not that anyone would see it. Anything he created to capture the beauty of this moment would be lost in the dust. The flare of orange wasn’t just awe inspiring. It was destructive. It was world ending. It was _their_ ending.

Fourteen days they'd been stuck on this planet, the jumper crashing not even twenty feet past the gate as they flew on to a world that was crashing around them.

Ronon and Teyla had made it back through the gate on foot only seconds before the gate fell into rubble, the wormhole winking out with it and trapping John and Rodney on a world that was ending.

Rodney never gave up on trying to fix the jumper. Not until the ground opened up and swallowed what was left of it, damn near taking Rodney with it.

John's arm tightened its hold around Rodney's shoulders at the memory and Rodney turned to look at him, their faces so close that John couldn't really see him. John swallowed the memory down and smiled, reassuring and scared out of his goddamned mind.

“It's nothing,” he said, answering Rodney's unasked question. “Come on, you're missing it.” He jerked his head in the direction of the their doom, written across the sky. “You don't want to miss the end of the world, do ya?”

Rodney burrowed closer into John's side and turned his attention back to the sky.

“Not long now.”

After the jumper was gone, there was no choice but to accept the inevitable. They were a sixteen day jumper flight from the nearest working Stargate and the Daedalus had still been on Earth when they left Atlantis. There would be no Hail Marys this time.

“What?” Rodney had spat, still covered in dirt from his near dive into the earth. “You're giving up? You? Colonel ‘never-leave-a-man-behind’?”

John didn't answer that.  Wouldn't. John _hadn't_ left anyone behind. He could have. He was fast enough that an extra burst of speed would have seen him through the wormhole before the gate collapsed but...he had made a choice, had matched his stride with Rodney's and…he didn't regret his decision. Never would.

John kissed Rodney for the first time the day after hope was lost and Rodney had slugged him on the jaw before kissing him back, mumbling the whole while about how they should have been doing this years ago.

He was right.

They should have.

He'd been too scared before. Of losing his career, his command. His city.

Losing hope was surprisingly freeing.

“It's not a bad way to go, really,” Rodney mused. “Who else gets to witness a sun go supernova? It's something, huh?”

“Rodney,” John took a breath, “I - “

“Don't.” Rodney touched John's lips with his finger, silencing him. “Don't. I don't know if I could stand it if you said it.”

John nodded. He could understand that, even if he didn't agree.

“But, I know,” Rodney continued, smiling sadly. “And you should know that I, ah, I feel the same. Always have. So, y’know, there's no point saying it out loud because that would just make me mad that it took this to hear it and I'm this close to falling apart anyway and - “ the sky around them started to flare orange and white and Rodney started to shake underneath John's arm, but he kept talking. Nothing, not even the end of the world, would ever keep Rodney from talking. “- and the important thing is that you know. And I know. We know. We - -“

The world around them started to glow, a brilliant white so bright that John had to screw his eyes shut against it. His hands scrambled at the back of Rodney's neck and he buried his face into Rodney's broad shoulder, hanging on to the only thing that felt solid. “I do,” he whisper fiercely, “fuck, Rodney, so much.” Then between one breath and the next, with the white light reaching a crescendo, the world disappeared.

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: John/Rodney. Blanket spread on grass at night. 
> 
> I've not marked this as Major Character Death because I want to leave it up to you guys whether it is or not! They might have winked out of existence as the world exploded around them or the Daedalus might have found a way to get to them in time and they were beamed aboard.....so, are you an optimist or a pessimist? 
> 
> This also fills the Comet of Doom/signs in the sky square of my tic Tac woe card
> 
> Update: third option, they ascend. I kind of love that idea. Thanks to popkin16 and Gozer for pointing it out!


End file.
